A Guest Reader Visits the Banairs

On Friday, we had a special guest reader: Christopher's mom!  Ms. Goodfriend came in to visit with the children and read "The Seed" by Eric Carle.  After reading the story, she helped the children "plant" seeds.  Instead of using soil, we placed a lima bean into a clear sandwich bag with a damp paper towel.  Then, we taped all 36 bags onto our windows.  Check back soon to see updates of our plants!

If you are a mommy or daddy of one of our students and would like to come read to our class on a Friday afternoon, please let us know! 

The Banairs Welcome Spring!

Our room has seen a lot of changes this year!  Our students arrived to our classroom at the end of Summer.  We changed our summer trees into fall trees with brown, orange, and red leaves in October.  In December, the leaves fell to the ground to represent the winter season.  Now, we are finally getting our room ready for Spring!  Our students helped trace and cut out green leaves to cover the trees' bare branches.  They also learned to use water color paints to make beautiful butterflies!  We also hung our watering cans back up and soon we will see flowers on our ceiling again!  We are so excited to bring out all of our colorful flowers to celebrate SPRING!

100 DAYS OF KINDERGARTEN

Counting to 100 is no problem for the Banairs. We have been keeping track of the school days, and February 3rd was the 100th day that we have spent in Kindergarten . We had fun counting by ones, fives, and even tens all day!

We made crowns with 100 "things" on them.

We know 100 words! Children were able to write words that they knew on a chart throughout the day.

                                     What is a 100th day of school celebration without a cake?

     We had to find 100 chocolate kisses around the classroom and place them on a hundreds chart.

                                 A first grade class came by to show off their 100 year old costumes!

                                               Yuuuuuuuum..... 100 snacks!!

                                                              We LOVE kindergarten!

Surprise Visit!

On Friday, students were surprised by six special visitors: baby chicks!  Our class was visited by four wonderful fifth graders who were able to tell us all about the babies!  They showed us diagrams and explained how the chicks grew in their eggs and then hatched.  We were so impressed by their knowledge!  What a great experience for both fifth graders and kindergartners at CCE!

Join the Club!

We have introduced Class Clubs as a way to encourage all of our students to learn important information.  For The Computer Club, students must be able to log onto the computer using their username and password.  We sent home your child's username and password a few weeks ago.  The children who join this club by May 20 will get to enjoy an ice cream party!  We also have four other clubs: The BFF Club (students who are caught being a great friend), The Phone Number Club, The Address Club, and The Shoe Tying Club.  When students master these skills, they are able to join the club!  The students who master ALL 4 of these clubs by May 26 will get a Pizza Party!  Help your child at home by teaching them their phone number, home address, and how to tie their shoes.  These are all important skills that will help your child in case of emergencies.

Valentine's Day

On Monday, we celebrated Valentine's Day!  We had a fun-filled day with candy, cards, and crafts!  We made candy necklaces, listened to "Franklin Says 'I Love You'" on tape, read Valentine's Day books, completed a puzzle shaped like a heart, created Valentine's butterflies, and read the Valentine's from our friends. Please enjoy the pictures below.

Awesome Addition!

Believe it or not, these Kindergartners are learning to add! (We have such a wonderful and smart class!) During Math, we have been focusing on basic addition. Together, we brainstormed different addition strategies such as: draw pictures, use manipulatives, count on fingers, draw tally marks, and use the number line.  The students are encouraged to use these strategies when solving addition story problems. For example, "Miss Barber had 3 cupcakes.  Miss Anair gave her 5 more cupcakes.  How many cupcakes does Miss Barber have now?"  In class, a teacher will orally tell an addition story problem.  Students work with their Elbow Buddy to write the equation and answer on their whiteboards.

This past week, we also learned a great new game called "Double Compare," in Math Investigations!   In this game, students worked in pairs and each student had a deck of cards.  Both students flipped two cards over and added the numbers together.  The partner who had the higher sum took all four cards.  The game ended when one partner won all the cards in both decks!  This game is based off a previous game called "Compare."  In Compare, students only flipped over one card each and the student who had the higher card collected both cards.